Last month, the National Snow and Ice Data Center announced that sea ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic Circles had reached a new low. In the Antarctic, where the summer season just wrapped up, rapid ice melt led to the lowest sea ice minimum ever recorded for the area. At the same time, on the other side of the world, the Arctic Ocean was

Arctic temperatures have finally started to cool off after yet another winter heat wave stunted sea ice growth over the weekend. The repeated bouts of warm weather this season have stunned even seasoned polar researchers, and could push the Arctic to a record low winter peak for the third year in a row. Meanwhile, Antarctic sea ice set an all-time

The calendar may have turned to 2016, but temperatures are picking up where 2015 left off. January was record warm, according to data released this week by NASA. You may recall that last year was the hottest on record for the globe. And by NASA’s accounting, it ended with a bang. This past December was the warmest December on record and the most

At Climate Central, we love climate research (but really, who doesn’t?). We cover it relentlessly and a lot of findings have come through our inboxes this year. All those studies are crucial to shaping both what we know about the world we currently live in as well as what we’re in store for in the future depending on how we respond to climate

Scientists already know that receding sea ice allows solar energy to warm exposed water rather than reflect back into space, but blooms of algae could make matters even worse. By the end of the century, researchers say, the blooms could lead Arctic warming to increase by as much as 20 percent.

Since at least 1979, Arctic sea ice has generally been on a downward slope, trending 4.5 percent lower per decade overall and 13.7 percent lower per decade during the September summer minimum. In fact, the average September Arctic sea ice extent is down almost 1 million square miles from where it was about 30 years ago. There’s no reason to think